Wednesday, August 10, 2005

TIPS: Water saving showerhead and 5 fluro lightglobes only $5

I recently went to the Organic Food and Wine expo in Sydney. It was delicious! At the fair was a stall run by neco, an eco hardware store.They have an agreement with the government which means they can virtually give away stuff to help save energy in the home.
For $5 you get 5 fluro light globes and a water saving showerhead.
I don't know how good the showerhead is because I only got the globes. The globes are the best fluros I have ever found, as they are 2700K compared to the usual 5000-7000K. This is the light color measurement, 2700 is the closest to daylight, so you get more of a white/yellow light, rather than the usual green light from a fluro.
The delivery charge is $5 for 20kg so you might like to add something to your order. They sell soaps suitable for grey water systems, really good eco shower roses (I recommend delux diamond)and fun shower timers to help you keep your shower short.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

TIPS: How I benefited from insulating the HWS

You may recall my TIP from July to
"insulate your hot water service"
We recieved our gas bill today for May, June, July.
Compared to the last bill, on this bill we had one extra flatmate who is a persistant showerer; the gas rate has been increased ; and the hot water service(HWS) has been insulated for only one of those months, yet our GAS BILL HAS GONE DOWN ! By $10 mind you, so I look forward to posting the results for next quarters bill which will ALL be delivered by the insulated HWS!

Monday, August 08, 2005

WEBSITE REVIEW: Your Home

This is a great all-rounder of a site for Australians interested in greening their homes. As the site says:
"Your Home is a suite of consumer and technical guide materials and tools developed to encourage the design, construction or renovation of homes to be comfortable, healthy and more environmentally sustainable."
It covers just about everything, and most of the information is quite detailed.It is very nicely presented and you can also order a CD and/ or reference manual.
www.greenhouse.gov.au/yourhome/

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

WEBSITE REVIEW: Square 1

Square 1 is the best website I have ever met for understanding and practicing passive solar design.
It is run by the University of Cardiff in Wales,UK.
The information can be used globally... just remember that Northern Hemisphere countries worship Southern Sun where as in the Southern Hemisphere, it is the Northerly Sun we desire.

The site offers free on-line education in passive solar design, and free use of heaps f great tools including the wonderful "solar tool" ( under software/other tools/the solar tool). This downloadable program easily creates a 3D model of any window you wish to test for solar access. You can try out all sorts of shading options, watch the sun cast shadows on it any time of the day, any day of the year, and then get a list of the monthly shading co-efficients. Fantastic!

NEWS: Take survey to help green power research

Reserchers at Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, Sydney are researching why people choose Green Power or not.
They have a quick on-line survey here
It's a nice little survey so help them get lots of feedback by contributing your answers!

Monday, August 01, 2005

WEBSITE REVIEW: Redefining Progress

redefiningprogress.org
This is a well packed not-for-profit website from the US currently covering 3 main areas-
() Common Assets
() Sustainability Indicators
() Sustainable Economics

Each area is dicussed in well presented format with downloads for further in-depth reading and bibliographies.

The site also contains a nice ecological footprint calculator

As well as having clear, relevant information, this site offers ideas and actions which can be taken for a more sustainable future.